Chapter Forty-Three

“What’s wrong?” Dane asked, sensing the sudden stillness in the room.

His team knew something. Something bad. Lena tightened her grip on his fingers.

“Nothing’s wrong. Exactly,” Thorne said as he gestured to two empty seats, silently suggesting they sit.

“You couldn’t locate them?” Dane turned to Angel with a look of shock. He’d never known her not to be able to track someone down. She was a computer whiz and ruthless when it came to hunting bad guys.

“Of course I located them.” Her tone of offense brought a smile to his face.

“We weren’t able to confirm their location, but we are pretty certain we know where they are. The problem is that we are the extent of the team,” Colton said while Thorne nodded in confirmation.

“Are you kidding me?” Dane practically shouted. “Why?”

It was ridiculous. This was Viktor Fucking Kulakov. There should be an entire branch of the military devoted to taking him down. In the room were only six marshals. And of those six, two were retired and one had given birth a few months ago.

“Why can’t we get support from another task force?” he asked.

“I contacted the federal prosecutor and explained the situation. He said after the last blunder when Kulakov got off, he’s not willing to move on the case yet. He still doesn’t think he has enough to get a conviction. He says if he moves too soon, the best they might get is a plea bargain to a lesser offence, and Viktor would see daylight again in a few years.”

“But we can get him on two counts of kidnapping, and attempted murder,” Justin complained. “And that’s just with the testimony of the people in this room. Surely, there’s enough by now to put him away for good. Colton saw a lot of shit going down.”

“Again, I explained all of that, but he’s still not convinced.”

“Is he on the take?” Dane directed the question toward Angel. He was certain she would have already considered checking the man’s accounts.

She shrugged and shook her head. “If he is, I can’t find anything. Which means he’s either clean, or he’s tucked it all away somewhere well hidden, and isn’t so much as looking to make sure it’s still there.”

“What if it’s in cash?” Lena asked.

Justin sniffed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Maybe Viktor likes to show up at the drop like a baller with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist like in the movies.”

Dane fought the urge to lean across the table and hit him for being rude to her. But since she’d just pulled a gun on one of them, he wasn’t quite ready to force everyone to make nice.

“Not a briefcase.” Lena swallowed and looked up at him nervously. “Plastic totes.”

That got his attention. “You’ve seen plastic totes of cash being moved around?” he asked her, rubbing circles on her back as he encouraged her to trust his friends.

She nodded and bit her lip.

“Me, too.” Colton backed up her story. “I’ve even moved a few from his boat, myself. When I was on his payroll he dealt mostly with drafts, but after I turned out to be a plant, I bet he’s turned to cash transactions since he knows he’s being watched.”

“You can’t get that much cash in a briefcase, anyway, asshat.” Angel stuck her tongue out at Justin who stuck his tongue out back at her. Very mature.

“Can we get around the prosecutor?” Dane asked, trying his best to ignore them.

“No. He must have anticipated we would try. He’s cut us off. It didn’t matter how high I went, the answer was still ‘don’t touch him.’”

Lena asked the question Dane was thinking. “Then what are we going to do?”

“We save your children and take in Kulakov, so the prosecutor has no choice but to do his job or show his cards.” Thorne looked around at the group. “Did you really think we all gathered here so I could tell you to go home?”

Leave it to Thorne to be amused by their concern. Decades in the government had worn him down to the point he often came off as cold or unfeeling, but Dane knew differently. Under that crusty shell was a man who cared about all of them like they were his real children.

Angel rolled her eyes. “If we weren’t going to do anything, I could have told Dane when we talked the other day and saved us all the time,” she pointed out. “We couldn’t talk about a plan over the phone, in case they were somehow listening. If Kulakov has bought himself a prosecutor, who knows who else he’s paid for.”

“I appreciate your support, but we’re only five people.” Dane pointed out. Some of them were worthy of being counted as two, but still they weren’t enough for a tactical assault on a madman.

“He didn’t count you,” Angel said to Colton. “That’s so rude.” She turned on Dane. “Colton is a great agent. He might not have been on our team, but he’s one of us.”

Oh. Boy. Dane cringed inwardly. How would he get out of this one?

Colton coughed and looked up at the ceiling.

“What?” She darted a look around the table, then understanding dawned. “Me?” Her bright blue eyes fixed on Dane like lasers. He could almost feel the heat. “You didn’t count me? Why wouldn’t you count me? I’m a deadly force, and—”

“Um, Angel.” Justin pointed toward his own shirt with a wince. “I think you’re leaking.”

She glanced down and took in the growing wet spot on her chest and let out a sigh. “Give me the baby,” she ordered. “But when I get back from nursing, you had better let me be in on this mission, Dane Ryan. Or else.”

“We’ll find something for her to do,” Colton said when his wife was safely in the other room.

“At least she didn’t start crying again. The crying kills me,” Justin shook his head.

Dane studied the faces around the table. His friends. These people had become like a family to him when he’d lost his own. He frowned as he mentally calculated the risks. Without reinforcements, they would all be in greater danger. And yet they were all here, ready and willing to take that risk to help save his child.

He knew if the tables were turned, he would be sitting in one of their seats planning a raid to get baby John back without a thought to the danger for himself.

Five years ago, Dane had stepped out of his life and left his wife and son so they would be safe. He’d thought his life was over. But he’d been wrong. He had his team.

And now he had Lena.

“What’s the plan?” he asked, ready to get started.